Gemotions

The attic stairs creaked under Liam's weight as he hauled the trunk down. He was supposed to be doing a "spring clean" but he found it hard to muster the initiative. A picture of his father, in a uniform, smiling at a girl who was not his mother, fell out. He felt a wave of nausea.

He had always leaned on his father's perceived bravery, his stoic resolve. The stories of his valor in the war were the cornerstone of their family pride. Now he was questioning the very core of his identity. His carefully-constructed world, held up by the stories he had been told, began to crumble.

Liam had not imagined his father would have a secret. He sat on the floor, the trunk untouched, and stared at the image, a sense of disorientation washing over him. The floor seemed to tilt beneath him.